Qi Baishi (1864- 1957), a native of Xiangtan, Hunan, is one of the top ten painters in the 20th century and a world cultural celebrity. He is a famous master of calligraphy and painting and calligraphy seal cutting in China in the 20th century. He used to be a professor of Beijing National Academy of Art, honorary professor of Central Academy of Fine Arts, honorary president of Beijing Painting Academy and chairman of China Artists Association. He was awarded the title of "China People's Artist" and won the World Peace Council 1955 International Peace Gold Award. Representative works include Twelve Pages of Flowers, Grasshoppers and Insects, White Grass Stone Carving, etc. 20 1 1 On May 22nd, 2008, his largest scale work, Standing Map of Pine and Cypress? The four-character couplet of seal script was sold at a sky-high price of 425.5 million yuan.

Don't teach a day to do nothing: don't let a day pass.

Qi Baishi's story:

Qi Baishi, a master of Chinese painting, still keeps writing every day in his nineties. At least five a day, he wrote six big characters "Don't teach a day" and hung them on the wall to encourage himself.

One day, the old man Baishi celebrated his birthday. People poured in from morning till night to celebrate his birthday. It was already late at night when he sent the guests away. After a busy day, he felt very tired and went to bed.

The next day, Qi Baishi got up early in the morning and went to the studio to paint, regardless of eating. His family advised him to paint after dinner, but he insisted on painting five pictures before eating breakfast.

After dinner, he went to the studio to paint. His family was afraid that he was tired and advised him, "Didn't you just draw five?" How to draw? He replied, "I couldn't draw yesterday because of my birthday." I will paint more today to make up for my leisure yesterday. "